Norcold problem diagnosed - CHECK YOURS! (sidewall, NOT roof vent)

John_Canfield · 07-26-2006, 06:10 PM

We spent today at A&M RV Center in Anchorage for our Norcold cooling problem.

As suspected, the diagnosis is a bad cooling unit. It appears (my guess) that a production line boo-boo caused the cooling unit to fail prematurely. In the upper sidewall vent there is an "L" piece of sheet metal that is supposed to be at a 90 degree angle to the sidewall and provides a "ceiling" to the upper vent area. In our unit when the production worker pushed the fridge into its mounting cutout, the top rear of the unit caught the sheet metal flap and pushed it down so that it covered the top of the cooling tubing and fins. I looked into the top vent when I was troubleshooting and I noticed that I couldn't even see the tubing and fins because of the sheet metal but I assumed this was normal (what did I know

)

The strange thing is that the Norcold seemed to work nominally for the year we have had the coach - we did need to run it a setting or two higher than our friend's fridge but we thought it was normal for our setup. Maybe the trapped heat over a year's period caused the problem - I don't know.

IF you have a sidewall top vent (as in NOT a roof vent) because your fridge is on the slide, remove the top vent cover. Your area here should look like this! The tech had to pull out the Norcold out to straighten out the metal flap.

Hopefully there will be a new cooling unit on order tomorrow; it seems that the pressurized ammonia cooling unit cannot be shipped by air - it must go surface - oh goodie!

John_Canfield · 07-26-2006, 06:10 PM

We spent today at A&M RV Center in Anchorage for our Norcold cooling problem.

As suspected, the diagnosis is a bad cooling unit. It appears (my guess) that a production line boo-boo caused the cooling unit to fail prematurely. In the upper sidewall vent there is an "L" piece of sheet metal that is supposed to be at a 90 degree angle to the sidewall and provides a "ceiling" to the upper vent area. In our unit when the production worker pushed the fridge into its mounting cutout, the top rear of the unit caught the sheet metal flap and pushed it down so that it covered the top of the cooling tubing and fins. I looked into the top vent when I was troubleshooting and I noticed that I couldn't even see the tubing and fins because of the sheet metal but I assumed this was normal (what did I know

)

The strange thing is that the Norcold seemed to work nominally for the year we have had the coach - we did need to run it a setting or two higher than our friend's fridge but we thought it was normal for our setup. Maybe the trapped heat over a year's period caused the problem - I don't know.

IF you have a sidewall top vent (as in NOT a roof vent) because your fridge is on the slide, remove the top vent cover. Your area here should look like this! The tech had to pull out the Norcold out to straighten out the metal flap.

Hopefully there will be a new cooling unit on order tomorrow; it seems that the pressurized ammonia cooling unit cannot be shipped by air - it must go surface - oh goodie!

troth · 07-27-2006, 02:50 AM

Glad to hear you found the root cause to the cooling problem.
Nice pics & write-up John.

-Good thing yer gettin' it fixed, with all the hot weather down here in the lower 48, you'll need good fridge performance!

smlranger · 07-27-2006, 06:22 AM

Thanks, John, for the helpful and informative post. Hopefully, this may save others with the same set up issues down the road (no pun intended).

Also, great pics of your Alaskan adventure. Safe travels!

ESTANG · 07-31-2006, 04:36 PM

Thanks for the info John. I noticed my refrigerator was not staying as cold as it should when at the GNR. Granted that is probably the longest I have stayed in one spot in that kind of heat. It seemed to cool down when traveling. When I got home I saw your picture and decide to investigate. Very similar situation. In my case the sheet metal (where you wrote your note describing the bent sheet metal above) was covering 60% of the cooling coils and chafing very hard against it. Spent a little time trimming and reshaping to correct the problem. Haven't tried it yet but I'm sure it will make a difference.

John_Canfield · 07-31-2006, 05:34 PM

How about that - we're not the Lone Ranger! I'm glad you took the initiative to check yours and I'll wager it will make a difference.

Update on our cooling system 7/31: Our refrig/freezer seem to be performing normally and we only need to run it with a setting of 3. Apparently Norcold has not responded back to A&M RV Center because they haven't called me.

We are now thinking that the cooling system is healthy and it is now cooling properly. Probably going to drop by A&M tomorrow and discuss us bailing out of Anchorage.

Zimectrin · 08-01-2006, 04:21 AM

Several of us owe John a 'Thank You' for his input and ALL of us owe IRV2 a 'Thank You' for providing the forum.

rebelsbeach · 08-01-2006, 12:04 PM

John, I've been rather busy with Rally stuff so I just caught this thread....You can bet I'll go out and check my sheet metal this evening...THANK YOU for posting your findings and for your support of this forum...

Steve and Sherri, while we do provide the forum, we TRULY owe THANKS to you the members, as well as to Winnebago Industries for without either of you this forum would not be the HUGE SUCCESS it is.

Thanks again to John too!!

RanchoVectra · 08-11-2006, 08:01 PM

John, thanks for the tip, you can bet I will check our side vent first thing in the morning. I also wish I had checked to see where you were in AK two weeks back before I left for a week in Anchorage - obviously you were still there for at least part of the week I was. I see now you are in Valdez, hope you are enjoying it and that the weather has turned around from the clouds and drizzle we had most of my week. Great to see the kids and grandkids, though, and visit some of my old haunts. Done any fishing yet?

John_Canfield · 08-11-2006, 09:04 PM

Hey Phil,

We haven't noticed very many Horizons or Vectras up here - sorry we missed you. The weather is cool and rainy in Valdez so we are just hanging around the coach. We went salmon fishing on the Kasilof last month and next week we are going to do a couple of Silver salmon charters here in Valdez. They should be running good then.

Buddy & Jenna Kidd · 08-12-2006, 05:48 PM

Be sure and go Halibut fishing while you are there. Lots of fun.

rebelsbeach · 08-12-2006, 05:51 PM

Why should Jane and John go fishing in Valdez?

Just for the "halibut" of course.... <g-r-o-a-n>

John_Canfield · 08-13-2006, 07:36 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rebelsbeach:
Why should Jane and John go fishing in Valdez?

Just for the "halibut" of course.... <g-r-o-a-n>

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>Oh - bad.. very bad Bob!

Actually I will give a very good reason to NOT go Halibut fishing in Valdez - $250 each! It is an all day trip to get to/from the fishing area. We are probably going to buy some at the local seafood processor for about $9.75 a pound. We can buy 50 pounds for the cost of the charter.

Silver Salmon are running now so we are going out for them next week.

rebelsbeach · 08-13-2006, 07:42 AM

WOW!!

Those are some expensive fish....

For $500 bucks you can do some serious ocean fishing here in these parts...

bobpie · 08-13-2006, 09:09 AM

Actually I will give a very good reason to NOT go Halibut fishing in Valdez - $250 each! It is an all day trip to get to/from the fishing area. We are probably going to buy some at the local seafood processor for about $9.75 a pound. We can buy 50 pounds for the cost of the charter.[/QUOTE]
I'll bet you that if you catch just 1 halibut it will weight 50 lbs. It's one flat heavy fish!

John_Canfield · 08-13-2006, 07:27 PM

There is a good chance we *could* come back to the dock with way more than 50 pounds of meat. The daily limit is two fish per person and you have to commit to what fish are keepers when you reel it in. It looks like the usual size Halibut are 30-50 pounds but a +300 pounder was brought in at Valdez last week.

We're going to spend our fishing dollars on salmon charters instead.

rebelsbeach · 08-14-2006, 02:32 AM

Not just Norcold with issues as my brand new Dometic "Sidewise" just had it's cooling unit replaced....What a disaster it was as Dometic didn't have nay cooling units at first and we had to wait for one to be trucked as they're considered hazmat and not able to be overnighted.
Should find out today that everything' ok and I can get my coach back...

Buddy & Jenna Kidd · 08-14-2006, 09:55 AM

Try fishing for halibut at Ninilehik. You can get to the fishing grounds on 1/2 day trips at half the cost.